The invention "WildLife Homes" generally refers to residential and commercial real estate development, zoos, animal cages, wildlife management, and the Endangered Species Act.
Some of the more progressive real estate developers are building developments within environments where wildlife is able to enter and exit the developments freely, but no one has attempted to capture a wildlife habitat in the planned community with a traditional cage or a cage composed of connected buildings. In Yellowstone National Park, some homes are built on large estates bordering the park, where wild animals can travel through the community. In other places, communities have been built along streams, allowing residents to participate in recreational fishing conveniently. Residential homes are frequently situated only a few feet apart from each other and are typically built on land that has been flattened by bulldozers, cleared completely of trees, and cemented. Many people complain about the disappearing natural habitats, but, for the most part, developers have destroyed the maximum amount of natural habitats to allow for the maximum number of constructed homes.
Zoos have had relative success with respect to saving some animal species, but limits on zoo resources prevent zoos from saving all animals. Non economic problems include animals being unable to breed in zoos, animals breeding without natural selection, animals in small cages having limited mobility, animals losing hunting instincts, elimination of animal social groups and structures due to small animal populations, and the inability of animals to thrive in artificial environments.
Animal cages are made to prevent animals from escaping enclosed environments, but not to allow animals to survive unaided, as the animals would exist in their natural environments.
Wildlife management frequently protects wildlife habitats through buffer zones, such as farm land, timber land, and highways, but buffer zones do not solve several problems: animals crossing buffer zones risk being hunted and being hit by cars; hunters frequently enter wildlife habitats, legally or illegally, making predators' prey scarce and forcing predators to attack domestic animals for food; herbivores compete with domestic cattle for crops and gardens; logging companies unfavorably alter the environment; and people take an entrenched position on an unreasonable issue. This additional pressure on animal life, even in parks, decreases the populations of predators and scavengers, thus increasing the range that an individual group requires for a vibrant population.
The Endangered Species act generally requires that there be a plan in place to save each endangered species. This is becoming increasingly difficult. Zoos are unable to do it. The government and environmental groups cannot afford to purchase the requisite amount of land, maintain sufficient wildlife staff, recreate species' natural habitats, reintroduce disappearing species, and provide long term protection for the endangered animals. Current economic plans to save habitats and endangered species include: government subsidized parks, picture safaris, ecology tours, and hunting and fishing license fees, including big game hunting of endangered species in African and Indian parks. Habitats are rapidly disappearing permanently due to population pressure. For example, China, which has a temperate forest rainfall zone similar to the U.S., with an extremely large diversified exotic wildlife habitat, faces even greater population pressures that are compounded by the building of the Yangtze River dam, which will submerge thousands of square miles of land.